THE BRITISH MARTEN. 403 



the colour of the dorsal pelage, and the whiteness or yellowness of 

 the throat patch depending upon age or sex, or both. 



The elder Macgillivray, who had good opportunities for 

 examining specimens in Scotland, came to the conclusion that 

 the young animals have yellow throats, and are the " Pine Mar- 

 tens " of authors ; while in old individuals the fore part of the 

 neck and breast are white, or greyish white, or pale grey mottled 

 with brownish. The yellow colour on the throat fades in museum 

 specimens so as at length to be scarcely perceptible. 



The Irish naturalist, Thompson, arrived at similar con- 

 clusions, remarking that all the native specimens which had 

 come under his own notice were yellow-breasted, with the 

 exception of one which had the breast white, and was killed in 

 the Co. Antrim. He had, moreover, observed that the yellow 

 colour gave place to white with advancing age, and explained the 

 greater number of yellow-breasted specimens obtained by their 

 comparative immaturity. 



As the views of these two authorities are substantially 

 endorsed by Alston, it is to be inferred that his share in the 

 revision of the last edition of Bell's * British Quadrupeds ' did not 

 commence until after the pages on the Marten had been printed 

 off, or he would have dissented from Bell's view that both 

 species have been met with in the British Islands. The fact 

 is, he says, that Martes foina, the Beech Marten, is not and 

 never was a member of the British fauna. "During the last 

 ten years" (1869-79), he adds, "I have missed no opportunity 

 of examining native Martens, and have endeavoured to trace out 

 every supposed Beech Marten that I could hear of. I have thus 

 seen a very large number of specimens from various parts of 

 England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and every one has proved 

 to be Martes sylvatica, the Pine Marten." 



Blyth, who had paid some attention to the question, arrived 

 at a similar conclusion, and until some evidence to the contrary 

 can be produced, we must necessarily accept this view as the 

 correct one. 



We have then only to consider what was the past and what is 

 now the present distribution of one species, the Pine Marten, in 

 the British Islands. 



It was probably never very abundant, for had it been, so much 

 store would not have been placed on its fur, which has always 



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